A plan to lease Los Angeles County's five general aviation airports to a private company hit some turbulence Tuesday when pilots, union representatives and airport vendors protested the proposal. The Board of Supervisors generally supported the plan, but postponed action for two weeks to give opponents time to review the 20-year contract with Comarco Inc., an Anaheim-based defense contractor.

A light plane making an emergency approach to Whiteman Airport in Pacoima hit power lines and crashed onto a San Fernando street Wednesday night, seriously injuring the pilot and his passenger and disrupting power to nearly 3,000 residents, authorities said Thursday. The two-seat Cessna 152 crashed eight minutes after pilot Anthony Ast, 31, radioed the Burbank Airport tower to report a loss of engine power, said Wayne Pollack, air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Air traffic controllers began directing pilots and their aircraft at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima for the first time Saturday after dedication ceremonies for a new control tower. About 50 people, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, attended the dedication for the portable tower, which is to be replaced by a permanent structure. Antonovich and several other local politicians had lobbied for the tower's installation for safety reasons.

An air traffic control tower will begin operating Oct. 1 at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima after two years of lobbying by Los Angeles County officials concerned about the airport's proximity to other San Fernando Valley airports. With the sound of engines from small airplanes roaring behind him, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) made the announcement Saturday on the airport's Tarmac before a crowd of about two dozen, including pilots and passengers.

A small airplane lost power near Whiteman Airport in Pacoima Thursday morning and crash-landed on a narrow driveway between two houses. No one was injured and one house was slightly damaged. "It was just blind luck that I didn't hit anything," said pilot Gerald D. Anderton, 36, of Sandy, Utah, who walked away from the crash with a small scratch on his left hand. "Somebody upstairs was watching me."

In a Dec. 23 article about installing a control tower at Whiteman Airport, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich was quoted as saying the control tower would be "a major step toward improving air safety in the San Fernando Valley." No one has shown that the air traffic at Whiteman is a threat to the Burbank airline traffic or Van Nuys traffic. Installing a control tower at Whiteman is an act of excess federal spending, not increased air safety. RODNEY F. SINCLAIR Van Nuys

A pilot charged with drunk driving three years ago was charged Tuesday with flying under the influence of alcohol after belly-landing his plane at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima earlier this month. James Lee McCoy, 46, of Sylmar, also was charged in Van Nuys Municipal Court with careless and reckless flying, flying too low, and illegal possession of a loaded pistol and marijuana. McCoy, who describes himself as a self-employed make-up artist, was arrested Sept.

A Sylmar pilot was arrested on suspicion of drunk flying after his small plane made erratic approaches to Whiteman Airport in Pacoima and belly-landed with the wheels up, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. James Lee McCoy, 46, was not injured, and his plane, a single-engine Mooney Mark 21, sustained little damage in the landing about 8:30 Monday night, Sgt. Ken Dionne said. "He did a basic belly-flop on the runway," Dionne said.

A few hours before the Federal Aviation Administration implemented new rules forcing private pilots to change their flying routes, Richard Cassity, a dental technician from Van Nuys, took one last jaunt along a soon-to-be-closed corridor. "I just wanted to do it one more time, so I went up just before midnight," Cassity said. The corridor over Los Angeles International Airport was unusually crowded when he flew his single-engine Cessna through about 10 p.m., he said.

A North Hollywood man whose plane nearly collided with another aircraft last January was sentenced in Ventura on Wednesday to six months in County Jail for flying while intoxicated, according to court records. A Ventura Municipal Court judge also imposed a fine of $1,700 on Ronald Lichnovski, 44, and ordered his flying license suspended for a year. Lichnovski was arrested Jan. 24 after he landed his Piper Tri-Pacer aircraft at Oxnard Airport.